As of 8am today, a total of 155,680 illegal immigrants working for 26,957 employers had applied for the E-Kad and 140,746 cards were issued. This is only 23% of the 600,000 cards targeted by the Immigration Department.
Immigration director-general Mustafar Ali expressed his disappointment with the attitude of employers as the registration exercise was launched on Feb 15.
“I emphasised many times that the deadline for registration is midnight tonight, and the deadline will not be extended,” he said at a press conference.
He said after the deadline, the department will arrest illegal immigrants and prosecute their employers under Sections 56(1) and 55B of the Immigration Act 1959/1963, including those employing immigrants with student passes.
A check by reporters today found the Immigration Department headquarters crowded with employers and their illegal immigrant workers waiting to register for the E-card at the 11th hour.
“While the deadline for applications is midnight, we expect our officers to be working up to 7am tomorrow to process all the documents received,” said Mustafar.
He said the applications received after 11.30am had to be kept aside to complete processing those received earlier.
The most number of applicants were illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, followed by those from Indonesia, Myanmar and Nepal, he said.
Mustafar also said that immigration authorities had arrested several people who took advantage of the E-card registration to offer their services as agents.
“They were issuing false E-cards,” he said, adding that employers had to apply for the cards without going through middle-men.